Monday, November 11, 2013

Lex Luthor confirmed for 'Batman vs. Superman' and Kevin Smith has seen the new batsuit (and is blown away)

Over the weekend, a special fan event was held for this week's Blu-ray release of Zack Snyder's Superman epic "Man of Steel." Hosted by noted comic book aficionado (and sometime filmmaker) Kevin Smith, and featuring Snyder and Adams (Henry Cavill Skype'd in and they played a prerecorded bit with Michael Shannon ), the event was mostly to reflect on the making of "Man of Steel" and to hype the home-video release. But, as recounted by Screen Crush , there were also some tidbits unleashed about the forthcoming sequel, which pits the Man of Steel against the Caped Crusader in a project tentatively dubbed "Batman vs. Superman."

When discussing Superman's space beginnings, Snyder said, "At its core, Superman is an alien. He comes from an alien world ... Lex loves to call him an alien." Of course, Smith shot back: "That's a spoiler, folks." This acts as a seeming confirmation that the sequel will feature the bald, real estate-obsessed villain as a central antagonist. Snyder also said that the repercussions from the climax of "Man of Steel," which saw thousands of people die (Snyder estimates the number at "5,000") and Superman snapping the neck of fellow Kryptonian Zod (Shannon), will play into the sequel. "There's a sadness at the end of the movie. That's a thing that weighs on Superman."

Oh, the batsuit. It’s such an important part of all of our lives, perhaps the most important for some of us. But after, what, four live-action Batman actors in the past couple of decades, and at least a couple of batsuits per actor, the question of how to make a new Batman look new and exciting and original is a valid one. And it’s certainly something Batman Vs. Superman director Zack Snyder and star Ben Affleck are dealing with these days.

Well, according to professional fanboy and Friend of Affleck Kevin Smith, Snyder has nailed the look of the new Batman. On his podcast, Smith revealed that Snyder showed him a picture of the costume after moderating the Man of Steel Blu-ray event this weekend. Here’s what he had to say about it:

“I saw the Batman costume. … More than that, I saw a picture of [Ben Affleck] in the costume. … Now, I don’t want to give anything away ‘cause that is up to them and stuff … but I am going to say this, I instantly bear-hugged [Snyder]. You have not seen this costume in a movie on film before. And for a comic-book fan, it was mind-bending. I was like, ‘Get the f#@k out of here. Only you have enough power to pull this off, man.’ Because everyone always like does this f#@king Matrixy kind of X-Men black armor thing. … There wasn’t a single nipple on this f#@king suit, man. It was fantastic. I’m telling you, as a geek I was just like… It blew my mind. … I think everyone is just gonna be like, ‘holy s#!t!’ It’s its own thing, man. It’s like we haven’t been down this path at all.”

Smith also mentions that the costume has a “very [redacted] influence to it.” The redacted part, however, is beeped out on the podcast. So now it’s time to start guessing what he said. I’m gonna go with a “very gimp influence to it.” You?